College football notes: Two Wyoming players earn MW honors

Nov. 5, 2012

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Coloradoan news services

LARAMIE, WYO. — Wyoming sophomores Brett Smith and Blair Burns have been named the Mountain West Conference offensive and defensive players of the week.

Smith threw for four touchdowns and rushed for one and Wyoming scored a season high 45 points in a 45-31 win over Colorado State last Saturday.

He completed 19 of 32 passes for 235 yards, and he rushed for an additional 27 yards for 262 yards of total offense.

Burns returned an interception 99 yards for a touchdown and added four tackles against Colorado State. His interception return was the second longest in school history, and ties for the third longest in Mountain West history.

BCS: One down, one to go for Oregon.

The Ducks moved up a spot and passed Notre Dame in the BCS standings on Sunday, moving into third place behind Alabama and Kansas State.

Oregon is coming off its biggest victory of the season, gashing USC on the ground and winning 62-51 on the Trojans’ home field on Saturday night. That result, combined with Notre Dame’s overtime victory against a middling Pittsburgh team, helped nudge the Ducks by the Irish this week.

Alabama (.9957) is a rock solid No. 1 in both the polls and the BCS computer ratings this week. The Tide needs only to win out to reach the BCS title game for the third time in four seasons.

Kansas State (.9318) is third in the polls and in the computers, but second overall.

The Ducks (.9166) are a solid No. 2 in both polls, but still fifth in the computers.

Notre Dame (.9050) is in fourth place with only two opponents with a winning record left on its schedule.

Behind the Irish in the standings are four Southeastern Conference teams — Georgia, Florida, LSU, South Carolina.

Kansas State: Kansas State coach Bill Snyder is hopeful injured quarterback Collin Klein will be available for next Saturday’s game at TCU.

The Heisman Trophy candidate was hurt during the third quarter of the No. 3 Wildcats’ 44-30 victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday.

Nebraska: Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez is the Big Ten offensive player of the week for the second time in three weeks.

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The third-year starter from Corona, Calif., led the 18th-ranked Cornhuskers on two fourth-quarter scoring drives to erase a 10-point deficit and beat Michigan State 28-24 on the road Saturday.

Martinez ran for 205 yards, with touchdown runs of 35 and 71 yards. He passed for 160 yards and two touchdowns, including the 5-yard TD toss to Jamal Turner with six seconds left.

Martinez has been named offensive player of the week four times this season, tied for second most in a single season in conference history.

The Huskers (7-2, 4-1) play Penn State (6-3, 4-1) in Lincoln this Saturday.

Also, Nebraska coach Bo Pelini says Rex Burkhead’s status for this week’s game against Penn State is unclear.

The All-Big Ten running back has missed all or part of seven games because of an injury to his left knee.

Pelini said Monday that Burkhead had been “pushing really hard” in his rehabilitation and had shown signs of improvement. The senior from Plano, Texas, didn’t appear in the last two games after aggravating the injury in the first quarter against Northwestern on Oct. 20.

Burkhead, originally hurt in the opener against Southern Mississippi, is among seven running backs in Nebraska history to run for 3,000 career yards.

Ameer Abdullah has rushed for more than 100 yards in each of his four starts in Burkhead’s place.